Two Mississippi Docs Revolutionizing Digital Medicine for Patients

You love it or hate it, embrace it or fear it, but technology is here to stay along with all the gadgets that go with it. It’s the scanners at the grocery store, the card swipe at the gas pump, wireless speakers in our homes, hands-free Bluetooth in our vehicles, and a text to-go order at your favorite restaurant. Technology is everywhere in our lives. But what of innovative technology in the medical community that allows for greater access to our doctor, medical records, and more technology in the training of doctors?

Two Mississippians are on a mission to expand medical technology into the doctor’s office, for the patient, in the classroom for medical students, and other innovate methods of identifying and using technology for medical purposes. Their meeting was purely by chance at a technology conference, and of course it was a mutual friend’s Tweet that alerted the two they were both from Mississippi.

How can these two medical doctors (both Mississippians and both with a proclivity for improving medical care through technology) tackle the challenge of merging medical technology while breaking down barriers that surround traditional medical practices? They are driven to find ways to bridge the gap of trusting technology, overcoming costs to both doctor and patient, identify effective means to provide technology for the elderly and underserved, and convert traditional medical schools into technology havens that meet today’s needs. Meet doctors Jennifer Joe and Ivor Horn, catalysts for changing standard healthcare into useful digital medicine. Futuristic medical technology is around the corner!

“As the medical landscape changes, we as doctors must find more meaningful ways of spending time with patients, and we can work to take back that relationship through technology,” said Dr. Jennifer Joe. Her company, www.Medstro.com brings doctors into that conversation of how to achieve better doctor and patient time together through various technologies. “We are divided into two groups, the ‘digital natives’ and the ‘digital immigrants’ and that presents some of our challenges,” Dr. Joe added. She defined digital natives as those who grew up on technology and cell phones. The rest of us are classified as digital immigrants who learned technology as it developed. The key to any challenge is keeping up with changes that digital natives have become adapt to with expectations of better applications and gadgets. For the digital immigrants, the challenge is not to become intimidated by change or change in technologies. Dr. Joe said, “We have to be more innovative in bringing doctors and medical students into this digital age to improve doctor/patient relations and in academic medicine.” But, how do we apply that to improving medical care?

With Google Glass, patients watch for drug interactions and learn how to take their meds safely. The future!

One such application is in the area of disease management as Dr. Ivor Horn describes. “I am passionate about collaborating with other doctors and technology providers to make medicine and the world a better place,” she said. “We can’t just stop at giving patients access to their digital medical records; we have to make that digital experience meaningful to our patients,” Dr. Horn continued. As a practicing pediatrician in an underserved area of Washington, D.C., Dr. Horn knows that if she has a patient with a chronic condition such as asthma, we can teach children to set their cell phone alarms when it’s time to take medication, download activities that impact their asthma, and teach them to better monitor and control their asthma. “Kids are so accustomed to playing games, texting their friends and using e-textbooks these days. Through technology we can teach children to be better, more responsible patients. The information they provide in between appointments helps us work together to control their asthma,” said Dr. Horn.

Making appointments online, sending daily blood pressure readings without leaving your home, watching for drug interactions, reviewing lab results with an explanation of what they mean are examples of how technology can now involve the patient and doctor in treatments and therapies. In addition, doctors will be able to share apps with patients and interact with each other via email or text messages when there are questions or concerns which make for better experiences with the doctor and improved managed care. For example, a patient with diabetes may be given an app that can educate them about types of exercise and diets to control the disease. The doctor can receive at-home blood sugar tests that the patient uploads through an app. Digital medicine will allow the diabetic patient to become better educated about how to control their disease and allow the doctor to see if medication is being taken properly and how diet and exercise impact their condition. Technology will bring the doctor and patient together in managed care for long term improvement of the patient. Wearable technology to monitor and manage a patient’s health plan are in our future, too.

“Patients expect their doctor to use technology like they do in their lives,” Dr. Joe said. “The generation of doctors today also wants to be able to use technology in their practices. There is a greater need to train practicing doctors and students of medicine in technology; people in the medical community want to be innovators in medical technology,” stated Dr. Joe.

“One day, we will see technology that allows doctors and caregivers to monitor elderly patients or those who have dementia. To allow patients to ‘age in place’ in the home is going to revolutionize how we care for people in an environment that they are both comfortable and familiar with, thereby improving their quality of life,” said Dr. Horn. “We hope to see legislatures incentivize technology innovators to allow more creation of technology software and hardware to monitor and track patients from a distance which is beneficial for rural places like Mississippi as well as for the elderly and underserved. Hopefully, efforts like this will help lower healthcare costs as well,” Dr. Horn said.

Out state has demonstrated that we are ready to embrace technology in the medical community. In 2013, Mississippi became the 16th state to pass legislation allowing for telemedicine. The law requires health insurance plans to provide coverage for telemedicine services to the same extent the services would be covered if they were provided in-person. Mississippi has taken a giant leap forward by passing that law which should pave the way for us to be a technology leader through efforts like our native daughters, Dr. Jennifer Joe and Dr. Ivor Horn. As Drs. Joe and Horn continue pushing the envelope for more creative telehealthcare, we can see stronger relationships between doctor and patient as a result of new technologies.

Dr. Horn said, “There is an innovative website that provides free tutorials for math, science and other courses for both high school and college age students. KHAN Academy is an online tool where the underserved can use to ‘catch up’ in school and for those who may not be able to afford tutors.” This educational, free website is easily accessible via cell phone, tablets, and laptops for anyone. “A site like KHAN Academy empowers parents and students to excel. What if we had a place for medical help? KHAN Academy is partnering with the American Medical Association to present a similar site geared toward medical schools,” said an excited Dr. Horn. Technologies like this learning website open a new world for students who need a little extra assistance to perform at higher levels.

“Some VA hospitals have recently rolled out online access of medical records to their patients. What we are finding is veterans jumped at the chance to see their records and this gives them a new perspective on their own healthcare,” said Dr. Joe. “Doctors see this new VA experience as a means to better communicate with patients. By providing this access, it lessens patient anxiety, educates them about procedures, and improves the relationship between doctor and patient,” she said.

“The data we provide to patients needs to be user-friendly. Recently, my father, who is a veteran, gained digital access to his medical records. By having this access, we noticed an issue he was having seemed to be directly related to an earlier TBI (traumatic brain injury),” said Dr. Horn. As a result, the doctors, family, and other caregivers have developed a better care system for her father because of the digital access to records.

“Technology has the ability to bring the world together in real time and inexpensively,” said Dr. Joe. “With the technology forums we hold through efforts like SXSW Interactive and Medstro.com, we are bringing the medical community closer together to learn and share ideas for better healthcare for everyone,” she said. “Innovations for new methods of teaching in traditional medical schools are our next challenge through the use of Google Hangouts, Google Glass to show surgeries, and YouTube medical videos for learning will inspire and challenge medical students in the near future. Providing role models via remote access is another benefit of technology.” Dr. Joe said, “In an effort to find more creative ways to use digital medicine, it is our responsibility to start with the patient and medical academics.”

“Underserved and minorities are sometimes the last to receive innovation, but research shows us that these groups are among the first adopters of newer technologies,” said Dr. Horn. “Technology can help reduce healthcare disparity and facilitate cutting edge technology to those who need it most.” She concluded by saying, “technology and innovation bring healthcare to people where they live, learn, work, and play. If we make it applicable and palatable to where people are, it helps us as doctors do our jobs better. Through technology, we can teach our patients how to take better care.”

With Mississippians like Dr. Jennifer Joe and Dr. Ivor Horn uniting to identify new, innovative, and creative means to bring doctors closer to patients and to provide a better, more educated digital experience for patients, they are on the cutting edge of transforming the health care system as we know it today. These two Mississippians are working to make future health care experiences more like the days when the country doctor made house calls; this time, the house calls will be through technological advances in how health care is delivered. We even conducted our interview over Google Hangouts, a first for me! Who knows, maybe Drs. Joe and Horn will help us host a SXSW interactive type conference at our very own University of Mississippi Medical Center and collaborate on the latest medical technologies.

This 1960’s clip from the cartoon, The Jetsons, is humorous. But how odd is it that a children’s cartoon portrayed so many technological advances that we use today, and yet it looked comical and childlike then. The ’60s cartoon featured gadgets such as Skype on iPad-like devices, conveyor belts, and LCD TVs; geeky technology we now use every day. If movies are predictors, then how about the movie Elysium where there are “medical pods” that cure diseases and regrow worn out organs? Futuristic movie… or the next medical revelation?

Jennifer M. Joe, MD. A graduate of St. Andrews in Jackson, Mississippi, she graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine. She did her residency at Georgetown and was a Fellow in nephrology at Harvard Medical. Dr. Joe is the co-founder and CEO of Medstro.com a networking site that brings doctors and medical students together. Mentoring other doctors and medical students through initiatives like the Boston Blue Button Innovation Challenge and this is another facet of her work to encourage expanding technology in the medical field. She is editor of MedTechBoston.com. Dr. Joe continues to work with patients in the emergency room and urgent care in the Boston VA system.

Ivor Braden Horn, MD, MPH. A graduate of Callaway High School in Jackson, Mississippi, she graduated from Spellman College in Atlanta. Dr. Horn received her medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine, and she did her residency in Oakland. Dr. Horn has appeared on the Today Show, Good Morning America Health and contributes to Parenting Magazine and the Discovery Channel as a medical expert. She contributes to the award-winning parenting blog, MyBrownBaby.com. Dr. Horn has two decades of clinical and research experience that focuses on health care communication, child health disparities, and community-based primary and preventive pediatric health care in urban and at-risk communities. She practices pediatric medicine in the underserved and disadvantaged area of Anacostia, Washington, DC. Her website is www.DrIvorHorn.com.

About The Author

From country living to living for the city, Donna grew up swimming in rain swollen creeks, had pet cows named after relatives, and would do homework up a tree in rural Oktibbeha County. After moving to Jackson several years ago, she was afraid of getting lost at first. Now, she's acclimated to the traffic, noises, crowds of people, and endless lists of things to do. She is a proud mom, published photographer, alum of the inaugural Jackson Voices class of 2012, almost a Ph.D., and member of the "4th Branch of Government." Donna's blogs are about the positive, ironic, and funny side of living in Mississippi. Just stories about good ole M'ssissippi stuff!